The story of Dell Rapids history is best told in the words of the people who lived it. This page features the memories of our townspeople found in journals, news articles, and tape recordings.
Pearl Dallison Olson grew up in Dells in the early 1900s and ran the Grand Cafe with her husband
The Dieson family store was the future home of the Dell Rapids Museum
Dell Rapids life in the 1930s in Roberta Devaney's words
“Now the beach on the river—that was a really big deal, especially during the hot summer in the ‘30s. Everyone would go to the beach and cool off. There was a big, high diving tower. It was just a wonderful time.”
“I was a farm girl. I would go to town and stay with my cousins or girlfriend. We would hurry up and do noon dishes and go down to the beach. Lots of other people would be there. One time, some bird had fallen out of a tree and Dr. Grove, he took a little twig and a long, strong blade of grass and set that bird’s leg.”
There was tennis in the park, a golf course of sorts on the hill south of town, and a horse racetrack to the east. Picnics by the river were a popular pastime. In fact, one Saturday, the Manchester Biscuit Company stirred up trouble by taking all the picnic tables for a company outing leaving none for the residents. That day the people of Dell Rapids “were almost kind of mad,” Devaney recalls.
“In the winter, children iced the streets with buckets of water and the city put up barricades for about four or five blocks to set the stage for coasting. Kids and adults alike took to toboggans and sleds; there was no age limit fur such slick fun.”
(Roberta’s quotes about Dell Rapids life in the 1930s are from HOME KIDS by Amy Dunkle, South Dakota Magazine, July/August 2001)
When Merritt Blew turned 100 in 1999, he wrote down these Dell Rapids memories for his family
